The marketing department of Cincinnati-based Barnes Dennig uses artificial intelligence for creating summaries, generating ideas for headlines and social media posts, and developing bios from resumes — but all of those are then evaluated and edited by a human marketer.
"In marketing, we leverage AI using the great description of 'thinking of AI as a smart intern on their first day,'" explained firm managing director Jay Rammes, who was just named to Accounting Today's 2024 Managing Partner Elite. (See the
Marketing isn't the only area where Barnes Dennig is applying AI — its assurance department uses AI to review thousands of leases to highlight key provisions in seconds, for instance — but it applies the same caution to reviewing the technology's outputs.
"We're utilizing AI across multiple practices within the firm, piloting new tools in a controlled 'sandbox' approach, evaluating outputs, and planning strategic steps forward," explained Rammes.
Many of the other members of the MP Elite were similarly excited to explore AI — and similarly cautious.
Speaking specifically of generative AI tools like ChatGPT, Carla McCall, the MP of AAFCPAs (and chair of the American Institute of CPAs), said, "Yes, it has a lot of power and it can do a lot of good, but it also can be used by bad actors. So we have to be careful. We need responsible policies, and we also need to then think about what that new technology also does for risk within our firms and how are we managing that risk."
"When I sat in on CPA.com's and the AICPA's AI symposium in December, what really stood out to me was the speaker that talked about developing a responsible AI policy," she continued. "So not just, 'Yes, you can use it.' … It's really about how do we create cultures where we're all aligned on the definition of it, when we use it, how do we implement it, how do we govern it? How do we have accountability and monitoring and all of this? The bigger the firm, the more effort that it's going to take to have us all aligned around that, so we're using it in a responsible way."
Having strong policies in place is important, because AAFCPAs is deeply engaged with AI. The Massachusetts-based firm is leveraging it as part of its Automation Center of Excellence, and has teams trying out Microsoft Copilot for a number of tasks, using GPT to query for Excel codes, using an AI large language model tool for tax research, and much more.
On the opposite coast, California-based Bartlett, Pringle & Wolf is exploring a similarly broad range of applications for AI, according to MP Eileen Sheridan — including using the same LLM tool, Ask Blue J, for tax research.
"Our firm is dedicated to leveraging AI to improve efficiency, gain deeper client insights, and provide top-notch services," said Sheridan. "Spearheaded by our tax partner-in-charge, our team is currently exploring AI's potential and future opportunities, along with using gen AI in our tax research."
Making the investment
All that exploration requires investment, and the members of this year's MP Elite are not shying away from that. For instance, Christopher Geier, the CEO of Sikich, greenlit a "substantial" budget for research and development around generative AI as soon as it became clear how much of a disruptor it was going to be (an investment made easier, no doubt, by the $250 million the firm recently brought on from Bain Capital). Among other things, the Chicago-based firm is piloting an AI-based human resources chatbot to give personalized support to staff while easing the workload of the HR team.
Vancouver, Washington-based Opsahl Dawson is getting a leg up on AI thanks to having joined private equity-backed accounting firm platform Ascend at the start of 2023.
(See what the MP Elite think about
"We are beginning the work to become a regional leader in AI thanks to the investment of powerful resources by Ascend, which is something that would have been too much to tackle by ourselves," said Opsahl Dawson MP Aaron Dawson. "As AI's muscle trickles down from the large national firms and gets to the large local firms, I think there's going to be a lot of challenges with how you implement it and how you harness it. So because of Ascend, we're going to be ahead of the game."
"We're going to have a special operations team that really understands and knows how to deploy different AI offerings," he explained. "We will have a very well-thought-through strategy that will be able to be efficiently implemented at our firm and at the other firms at every level of Ascend's platform."
To be clear, AI is not the exclusive preserve of large firms or those with major outside backing. Al-Nesha Jones' ASE Group, for instance, which has just four employees, is just as active with artificial intelligence as any of the larger firms of her peers in the MP Elite.
"We use AI-driven tools in our accounting and tax workflows to automate data entry, analyze information, identify trends, monitor KPIs, and create more robust reporting for our clients," Jones explained. "This technology streamlines our processes, reduces errors, saves time and mental capacity, and enhances the accuracy and timeliness of our service delivery. … By embracing AI, we improve efficiency, accuracy, and client satisfaction."
While all of the MP Elite are exploring AI, that doesn't mean they're all at the same stage of exploration. San Francisco's Kruze Consulting has a bit of a head start, according to founder Vanessa Kruze, thanks to a client base of technology companies that includes many software-as-a-service and AI startups.
"We frequently beta test the latest AI tools for startups and serve on product advisory councils for the largest accounting and fintech software providers," she said. "This helps us to not only better understand automation and AI tools, but also provide feedback to developers. This relationship also benefits our clients because of the inroads we have developed that lead us to be able to quickly address any issues [our clients] may face. We serve some of the top AI companies in the market, which gives us a unique keyhole in the latest AI trends and keeps us on top of new advancements."
No matter where they are in their engagement with artificial intelligence, all the members of this year's MP Elite recognize its importance, and how important a role it is going to play in the future of their firms, and of the accounting profession.
"AI will continue to evolve at an exponential rate, and we're going to see many significant advances in the CPA profession as well as in virtually all other sectors of the business world," said Barnes Dennig's Rammes. "It's been said that AI won't replace professionals across a variety of industries, but professionals who don't leverage AI may be replaced by those who do."
